au pair selection process

Choosing an Au Pair from Her Video: An example for your feedback

by cv harquail January 14, 2017

A prospective Au Pair from South America emailed last week– she has applied to be an Au Pair with Cultural Care, but hasn’t found a family.   She’s wondering — is there anything about her video that might be turning families off? Is there anything she could do to improve her video? I don’t want to […]

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“Matching With” Versus “Selecting” an Au Pair: What’s your perspective?

by cv harquail August 12, 2016
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Writing about the AuPair interviewing process, I’m getting a little philosophical. I just wrote this section (below) about the difference between “selecting” and “Matching with” an Au Pair.  Am I crazy? Do you make these sorts of distinctions? Is this how you frame the process yourself? What am I missing?  I’d love your ideas. “Matching […]

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How Long is Too Long to Hold an Au Pair Candidate’s File?

by cv harquail April 7, 2016
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I don’t know anything about baseball, but even so, the question raised in this post is a little “inside baseball”.  I think that means, you have to know a good bit already to even have an opinion about it. Briefly, the situation: — A mom writes that she’s having a hard time finding candidates, and she […]

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Your Family’s Au Pair Selection Process: Previous Au Pairs as References

by cv harquail May 20, 2011

  What has it been like for you to know that your former au pairs are discussing your family with prospective new aupairs? How has this worked out for you? Do you recommend this step in the Selection Process  to other host families?

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Your Family’s Au Pair Selection Process: Checking references

by cv harquail May 20, 2011

In a perfect world, we’d check the references supplied by each au pair candidate. It’s just too easy for someone who was untrustworthy to create references that make him or her look better than reality, especially when the reference givers do not speak English fluently. But, I must admit, in all of the times that […]

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Your Au Pair Selection Process: What’s your “Information Style”? (poll)

by cv harquail May 16, 2011

How do you “position” your family when you make your initial contacts with prospective Au Pairs? Do you like to lay all the cards out on the table, tough expectations and all, in the hopes that only the strongest will pursue a match with you? (Dare ‘Ya) Do you like to start sunny and light, […]

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Your Family’s Au Pair Selection Process: Emails and Information before an Interview

by cv harquail May 16, 2011

It’s critical to send potential au pair candidates some information about your family before you call them. You want offer enough information about your family so that you and the prospective au pair can tell easily whether it’s worth pursuing a potential match. In addition to sorting out potential mismatches on objective criteria like number […]

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What is your family’s Au Pair Selection Process?: Interviews (polls)

by cv harquail May 15, 2011

Busy Mom has been very busy, thinking about how to make the Au Pair Selection Process better. She wrote a long guest post, complete with several suggested polls. Because her effort was so comprehensive, it was a bit much for one post and one conversation theme. So, I’ve broken it down (and added some things […]

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Finding Good Au Pair Candidates 2: Best Practices for the “they give me a group to look at” system

by cv harquail July 21, 2009
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Okay, so you’ve set your basic preferences and sent them to the agency. The agency’s computers churn a bit, and out come 4 recommended candidates, right into your online family folder. Now what? How can you make this process really work well for you?

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